A Case Study on Logical Relations using Contextual Types

Proofs by logical relations play a key role to establish rich properties such as normalization or contextual equivalence. They are also challenging to mechanize. In this paper, we describe the completeness proof of algorithmic equality for simply typed lambda-terms by Crary where we reason about logically equivalent terms in the proof environment Beluga. There are three key aspects we rely upon: 1) we encode lambda-terms together with their operational semantics and algorithmic equality using higher-order abstract syntax 2) we directly encode the corresponding logical equivalence of well-typed lambda-terms using recursive types and higher-order functions 3) we exploit Beluga's support for contexts and the equational theory of simultaneous substitutions. This leads to a direct and compact mechanization, demonstrating Beluga's strength at formalizing logical relations proofs.Comment: In Proceedings LFMTP 2015, arXiv:1507.0759

Explicit Substitutions for Contextual Type Theory

In this paper, we present an explicit substitution calculus which distinguishes between ordinary bound variables and meta-variables. Its typing discipline is derived from contextual modal type theory. We first present a dependently typed lambda calculus with explicit substitutions for ordinary variables and explicit meta-substitutions for meta-variables. We then present a weak head normalization procedure which performs both substitutions lazily and in a single pass thereby combining substitution walks for the two different classes of variables. Finally, we describe a bidirectional type checking algorithm which uses weak head normalization and prove soundness.Comment: In Proceedings LFMTP 2010, arXiv:1009.218

Multi-level Contextual Type Theory

Contextual type theory distinguishes between bound variables and meta-variables to write potentially incomplete terms in the presence of binders. It has found good use as a framework for concise explanations of higher-order unification, characterize holes in proofs, and in developing a foundation for programming with higher-order abstract syntax, as embodied by the programming and reasoning environment Beluga. However, to reason about these applications, we need to introduce meta^2-variables to characterize the dependency on meta-variables and bound variables. In other words, we must go beyond a two-level system granting only bound variables and meta-variables. In this paper we generalize contextual type theory to n levels for arbitrary n, so as to obtain a formal system offering bound variables, meta-variables and so on all the way to meta^n-variables. We obtain a uniform account by collapsing all these different kinds of variables into a single notion of variabe indexed by some level k. We give a decidable bi-directional type system which characterizes beta-eta-normal forms together with a generalized substitution operation.Comment: In Proceedings LFMTP 2011, arXiv:1110.668

On generic context lemmas for lambda calculi with sharing

This paper proves several generic variants of context lemmas and thus contributes to improving the tools to develop observational semantics that is based on a reduction semantics for a language. The context lemmas are provided for may- as well as two variants of mustconvergence and a wide class of extended lambda calculi, which satisfy certain abstract conditions. The calculi must have a form of node sharing, e.g. plain beta reduction is not permitted. There are two variants, weakly sharing calculi, where the beta-reduction is only permitted for arguments that are variables, and strongly sharing calculi, which roughly correspond to call-by-need calculi, where beta-reduction is completely replaced by a sharing variant. The calculi must obey three abstract assumptions, which are in general easily recognizable given the syntax and the reduction rules. The generic context lemmas have as instances several context lemmas already proved in the literature for specific lambda calculi with sharing. The scope of the generic context lemmas comprises not only call-by-need calculi, but also call-by-value calculi with a form of built-in sharing. Investigations in other, new variants of extended lambda-calculi with sharing, where the language or the reduction rules and/or strategy varies, will be simplified by our result, since specific context lemmas are immediately derivable from the generic context lemma, provided our abstract conditions are met

On conservativity of concurrent Haskell

The calculus CHF models Concurrent Haskell extended by concurrent, implicit futures. It is a process calculus with concurrent threads, monadic concurrent evaluation, and includes a pure functional lambda-calculus which comprises data constructors, case-expressions, letrec-expressions, and Haskell’s seq. Futures can be implemented in Concurrent Haskell using the primitive unsafeInterleaveIO, which is available in most implementations of Haskell. Our main result is conservativity of CHF, that is, all equivalences of pure functional expressions are also valid in CHF. This implies that compiler optimizations and transformations from pure Haskell remain valid in Concurrent Haskell even if it is extended by futures. We also show that this is no longer valid if Concurrent Haskell is extended by the arbitrary use of unsafeInterleaveIO

Reconstructing a logic for inductive proofs of properties of functional programs

A logical framework consisting of a polymorphic call-by-value functional language and a first-order logic on the values is presented, which is a reconstruction of the logic of the verification system VeriFun. The reconstruction uses contextual semantics to define the logical value of equations. It equates undefinedness and non-termination, which is a standard semantical approach. The main results of this paper are: Meta-theorems about the globality of several classes of theorems in the logic, and proofs of global correctness of transformations and deduction rules. The deduction rules of VeriFun are globally correct if rules depending on termination are appropriately formulated. The reconstruction also gives hints on generalizations of the VeriFun framework: reasoning on nonterminating expressions and functions, mutual recursive functions and abstractions in the data values, and formulas with arbitrary quantifier prefix could be allowed